This song I'm about to sing,
I've had it on my mind for two or three days. I was visiting
with your pastor yesterday, and he asked me to sing. I've never
really sung this song before. I want you to listen to the words,
they're so beautiful. and tasteless the hours with
Jesus no longer I see. Sweet rosmints, sweet birds,
and sweet flowers have All of their sweetness to me
The midsummer sun The bills strive in vain to the
king. But when I am happy in Him, December's
as pleasant as May. His name yields the richest perfume
And sweeter than music His voice, His presence disperses my gloom
and makes all within me rejoice. I should worthy always this night
have nothing to rejoice No mortal so happy as I My summer would last all the
year Content with beholding His face my all to His pleasure resides. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. The. And prisons would call us through
If Jesus would dwell with me there Dear Lord, indeed I am blind
If Thou art my Son and my soul Say, why do I languish And why are my winters so long? O dry these dark clouds from
my sky, Thy soul's eerie presence restore, Or take me To thee upon high
Where weather and clouds are no more All right, turn back to Mark
chapter 4 now. Mark chapter 4. And let's read the first 14 verses
together. The Lord Jesus Christ is preaching here. Teaching and he says. Word says
and he began. Again to teach by the seaside. And there was gathered unto him
a great multitude so that he entered into a ship. And sat
in the sea or that is he had to get out in a boat away from
the pressing crowd so that everyone could see him and hear him. And
the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught
them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine
or teaching, Hearken, behold, there went out a sower
to sow. And it came to pass, as he sowed,
some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and
devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground,
where it had not much earth. And immediately it sprang up,
because it had no depth of earth, and when the sun was up, it was
scorched. And because it had no root, it
withered away. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground
and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased and brought
forth some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. And he said unto
them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was
alone, they that were about him, with the twelve, asked of him
the parable. And he said unto them, unto you
it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, that unto
them that are without all these things are done in parables,
that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they
may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should
be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. And he said
unto them, Know ye not this parable? How then will you know all parables?
The sower soweth the word. I read of a preacher one time
who quoted or read this portion of scripture after every time
he preached. Every time he preached afterward,
he would read or quote this portion of Scripture. That would be appropriate,
wouldn't it? Because what this is about, what
this parable is about, is preaching the gospel. Sowing the seed,
preaching the gospel. And every time the gospel is
preached, there are different reactions by different people. There are mixed reactions. because
there's a mixed congregation of hearers. There are believers
and then there are unbelievers. Our Lord said there are sheep
and there are goats. There are wheat and tare. Some believe, some don't. Some
hear and some don't hear. But Paul said, or Isaiah said,
the word never returns void. The word of God never returns
void. What I'm doing right now, what
I just did just now, never returns to God without doing something
to somebody. Paul said in his letter to the
Corinthians, Paul thanks men to God which always causes us,
that is preachers or witnesses, always causes us to triumph in
Christ and makes manifest or reveals the savor of Christ's
knowledge by us in every place. He said to the one person, we're
the savor of death unto death. In other words, they are dead
in trespasses and sin. Those who come in and hear it,
some are dead in trespasses and sin. And so the preaching comes
across as just a dead sermon. Just another sermon. Dead to
them. But he said, to the others were
the savor of life unto life. That is, some who are alive unto
God, quickened by God's Spirit, who the word is a savor of life
to them. And they say, it doesn't get
any better than this. They say, no, when they hear
the gospel, those who are alive, When they hear the gospel, they
say, now this is living. That's living. This is great. This is the most enjoyable thing
I can think of. To one, it's just a dead sermon.
Just so many words on a Sunday morning. To the other, it's the
greatest news they've ever heard. It's the best thing they could
possibly be doing. Which is your reaction? Huh? Look at verse three and verse
fourteen. We'll read these together. Our
Lord, in verse fourteen through twenty, explains the parable
to his disciples. He gives the parable in the first
thirteen verses, and in the next seven verses, he explains it. Look at verses three and fourteen
together. Verse three says, Harken! Listen
up, he says. Behold, there went out a sower
to sow." And look at verse 14. The sower soweth the word. Now take a farmer. Here you've
got a gardener or a farmer. He takes a bucket of seed or
grain and goes out to his garden and he's going to sow that grain,
that seed. for the hopes of a crop, producing
a crop. Well, this is my field of service
this morning. I am the sower. This is my field
of service. Well, actually, this is God's
field. He's the husbandman, and he owns
it. He's the great landowner. He's
the owner of Rocky Mount. He's the owner of Franklin County,
of Virginia, the United States, the world, the universe. He's
the owner. He created it. It's his. It all belongs to him.
But I am a laborer in his field this morning. I'm in his field.
He gave me a bucket of grain and said, sow it. Now, I have some seed to sow
this morning. And I said, you notice I said
seed. I didn't say seeds. When you go out to sow your garden,
Henry, you grow corn. I don't grow corn. When you grow,
I don't have enough room to grow it, but when you go out to grow
corn, do you tell Roberta, I'm going out to grow some corns.
I'm going to sow some seeds. I'm going to sow me some grains
of corns. You don't say that, do you? Huh?
Gardener goes out and he says, I'm going to plant corn. I'm
going to plant seed. I'm going to plant grain. And
these many seeds, you have a whole bucket of seeds, but it all makes
up seed, doesn't it? It's all corn, it's all grain. Many seeds make up one grain
to produce one crop, one fruit. Well, I preach the Word of God,
not words. I'm not making a play on words
here, either. This is the essence of the truth.
Not words, plural, but the Word, singular, of God. Because though
there are many seeds of thoughts in the word of God, there are
many truths, there are many words, yet it all is designed to produce
or tell of one end, one purpose, Jesus Christ crucified. The seed,
like he said about Abraham, not seeds, but seed, want. And it
all goes together, though many words of God, many seeds of thought,
yet it all goes together to tell one story, Christ crucified. The word of God, the words of
God, are telling us about the word of God. Right? The words of God tell us about
Christ, who is the word. This is the reason Paul the Apostle
He was an Old Testament scholar, wasn't he? He was a Pharisee.
They were scholars of the Old Testament. But when the Lord
revealed Christ to him, what did he say in 1 Corinthians 2,
verse 2? He said, I'm determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He said, I was like that treasure hunter who went out in the field
hunting goodly pearls, plural. And he said, I found one, one
great pearl. Quit looking for pearls, and
everywhere I dig I look for one, one great pearl. The Scripture
says Moses wrote of Christ. What's the Old Testament about?
Huh? Jewish history? Is the Old Testament
about Jewish history? The Old Testament is his story,
Christ's story. Moses wrote of me, Christ said.
Moses wrote a me. You know that story about the
ark, Noah's ark? Well, not about Noah. It's about Christ, the
ark. Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness. What's that about? Terrible disease? That's about Christ, the serpent
on the pole. To him give all the prophets witness. In him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. In him are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Christ is the Word,
right? He is the Word, the Word of God.
Turn over to John 12 with me. John chapter 12. Turn with me
now. This is important. Our Lord himself speaking here
in John chapter 12, and this lays the foundation here. Turn
over there. John 12. You see, a man may preach
many truths. You can go to a lot of places
this morning, and you'll hear a lot of truths. People who open up the Scriptures
and speak truths, true things. good things. You've heard people
preach and teach, men, and you come away saying, he said some
good things. Did he preach the good news?
You can hear many preach truths, but not the truth. Many people
preach, many men preach good words, but not the word. Many preach examples of faith,
but never tell us What the faith is, right? Like that man who preached on
the apostles' doctrine in prayer, Barbara. He never told us what
the apostles' doctrine was, did he? I heard the same message.
I wanted to lynch him. Seriously, I did. I wanted to
lynch him. Unless I preach Christ crucified
to you from this parable this morning, I haven't preached the
word, have I? Unless I preach the word to you,
you can't have a reaction to it. Look at John 12, verse 23. Our Lord said that Christ answered
them, saying, The hour is come. What a text this is. The hour
is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. All things. From the beginning
of time, before that, all things were purposed by God, created
by God, and eventually carried out by God for the glory of his
Son, Jesus Christ. It's a reason for it all. God
had one Son, one begotten Son, and had purpose before time began. that all things would work together
for his glory." That's Son. In other words, God is, from
the beginning, has been setting forth, or showing off, his Son. And I've given, like the illustration,
the Old Testament are pictures of Christ. It's like God's photo
album of his Son. God is saying, I've got one more,
one Son, let me show him to you. That's what the whole Old Testament
is about. The whole Old Testament says,
my son's coming, I'm sending my son, wait till you see him. And then the Gospels say, he's
here, just look at him. Isn't he grand? Isn't he glorious?
That's what the gospels are showing us. Look at Christ. Look at what
he said. Look at what he did. Look at the way he walks and
talks. Look at him! God's saying in the gospel, look at my son!
Look to Christ! That's what he's saying. And
then the epistles say, he's coming back. And you better look for
his coming. You better look for him again.
He's coming. And it's all for his son's glory. He's showing
off his son. You do the same with your children.
I've got one child. One child, this may be the reason
God has only given us one, to impress upon me this, the dearness
that an only child can be to a parent. Like his son. I have one child. We've got pictures
of her all over the house. All over the house. Why? We're
showing her off. Be honest with it. Come on now. John, you're the silliest old
granddad in here. I've seen you. with your grandchild.
The Scripture said, and Christ said, the hour has come. The
hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. All
right? It's the morning worship hour. What are we going to do
here this morning? What's this all about? What are we coming
in here this morning for? Huh? Play religion because it's
Sunday morning? Sing a few songs and go through
the motions? Attend church? We just come to
church this morning? No, the hour has come that the
Son of Man should be glorified. That's what this is all about.
Glorify Christ. If I'm going to stand up here
and preach, I better glorify Christ. If you're going to sit
out there and listen, you better hear as if you're hearing Christ
preach. Right? That's what it's all about.
That's why the hour is here. That's what this hour is all
about. If we're not going to do that, let's quit. Let's get out.
I'm getting out of this. Let's shut the doors here. Christ
is in Christ's ultimate glory. We talk about glorifying the
Son of Man. What's His ultimate glory? How do we glorify Him? Oh, yeah, we sing the songs and
we do this and we do that, but that's not His glory. Christ is glorified in just manifesting
the gospel, just preaching the gospel. Christ is glorified,
but not what we do for Him. But by telling everybody what
he's done for us. Christ is not glorified by what
we do. Christ is glorified by a man
standing and declaring what he's done, who he is, what he's done,
and what he's doing now, and what he will do. That's how he's
glorified. And his chief glory is the story
of his redeeming work, him redeeming the people. And that story is
called the gospel. OK? The hour has come, the Son
of Man should be glorified. Verse 24, look at it. Christ
says, Verily, now, verily, whenever he says verily, that means of
a truth. When he says it twice, of a truth. Now, of a truth, he says, I say
unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground. and die,
it abideth alone. Except the corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Where does corn come from? Huh? Where does corn come from? You say a seed. Kernel. Corn. Where did kernels come
from? They're asking that stupid question.
You sound stupid in the words of Brother Nyberg. You're stupid
a lot. It needs to be said here. That's
how stupid modern man is. Which comes first, the chicken
or the egg? If you believe God, you believe
the chicken did. If you don't believe God, you
come up with some stupid notion that some egg. Where did corn
come from? This is significant here. When God created the earth, he
didn't plant seed and wait for it to evolve. Did he? Huh? Wait around on it to grow. Sure
hope it grows. He spoke the word and a full
field of corn was there. Right? Full stalks of corn was
there. Full fruit. It was perfect. It
was complete. And man, he took man and put
him there in the midst of that cornfield. Henry, the first man,
was put in the cornfield. You see, before sin there was
no death. Right? Before sin, there's no
death. The seed doesn't fall into the
ground. Nothing died, nothing decayed, nothing rotted. It was
perfect. He told Adam, when he put Adam
in the garden, what did he say? Plant? No, he said dress it.
No, plant it. Don't touch it. Don't add anything
to it. It's perfect. It's complete.
You don't grow anything. I've already grown it all. All
you've got to do is just eat it. And where are you getting
that, Preacher? Jesus Christ. He didn't begin as a baby. Some
Methodist church down here. Sent me one of these advertisement
there. At this time of year, you know,
they all go through their little stupid plays and things, you
know, they all dress up with Mary and Joseph and a baby and
so forth. They sent me an advertisement, going to have a live Nativity
scene. Come down and be blessed. Drive-thru Nativity. Don't even
have to get out of your car. Drive-thru. And the preacher
and all these idiots are going to stand around and dress up.
I hope it pours down rain. They sent me that. I just, I
had enough. I had enough of this stuff. I
turned it over, just turned the announcement over and wrote and
said, Jesus Christ, not a baby. He's the sovereign Lord and King
of the universe. He's not to be worshipped as
a baby. He came one time as a baby. He's not a baby now. He's a king
sitting on a throne. He's to be worshipped as such.
Nowhere in the Bible will you see where God says, commemorate
the birth of my Son as a baby. What you will see is where he
says, I set my King on my holy hill of Zion. Kiss the Son lest
he be angry. See, everybody likes to worship
a baby. Why? You can manipulate him. He's
helpless, he's hopeless, he's a poor little, sweet little Jesus.
He ain't a sweet little Jesus no more. He's a sovereign Lord
and King sitting on a throne. He's going to do with you as
he will. He's not in our hands. A baby, you can put him in your
hands, you know. And I wrote all that to this fellow. I said,
send me no more of your blasphemous literature. Say, we're down here worshiping
God in spirit and truth, rejoicing in Christ on the throne, putting
no confidence in any of these fleshly, outward gimmicks, shows
of religion. Be done with it. Away with that.
Don't you dare drive through and see that. Why don't you dare? Jesus Christ
is very God of very God. A child is born. Yes, a baby
was born, but the Son is the everlasting Son of God who was
with the Father from the beginning. He was in the beginning. The
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The Word was
God. Jesus Christ never had a beginning. He always was and always will
be the mighty God, the everlasting Father. He's in full glory. He's always been perfect and
complete, right? That talks about the gospel,
too. You don't add anything to it. You're complete in Christ.
In the beginning, God, the Scripture says. In the beginning, that
God was Christ. Well, in order, he says, except
the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.
In order for God to save man, mankind is a species. He had to fall into the ground,
didn't he? He had to come down to the earth.
He had to be made—he was sent by the Father, not in full glory,
not as a full stalk of corn. The Son of God didn't come as
the Golden One. He came in disguise. as a seed,
as a root, in a dry ground. And that's the reason when people
saw him, they said, we don't see anything, we just see a man
like anybody else. No root, no form, no comeliness, no beauty
that we should desire. He looks like a man like everybody
else. A mere seed, a mere token of
what he was, or is, truly. Right? A seed. A grain of corn
no more resembles a full stalk of corn, really. then a candle
does the sun, doesn't it? One time he took his disciples
up on that mountain and revealed his glory, didn't he? They saw
he was more than just a man. Well, he came down disguised
as a man. He had his glory veiled from
human view, hidden from human view. Why did he come? Why did
Jesus Christ come? To show us how to live. Well, he showed us how to live,
all right, but he came down here to live for a people, to live
a perfect life. God has a chosen people, elect
people. God has an elect people, and
God gave those people to Christ and said, you go down there and
you live a life for them as a man, a perfect and a holy life, so
that I can accept them. I can't accept them the way they
are. They're unacceptable. They're unholy. They're sinful.
You go down there and you live for them. And after you live
a perfect life, I'll give what you did to them. I'll make it,
I'll impute it. That's what the word means. Your
class studied this this morning? I'll impute it. I'll charge it.
I'll make it look as if, just as if. Justify. I'll justify. Make it look just
as if I'd never seen it. I'll justify those people by
giving them your life. Computing it, charging it to
their account. When I see them, I see you. And they've lived
a holy life. I've got to die for their rebellion
against me. I hate sin. I hate iniquity.
I've got to put it away. It's got to be out of my sights.
Son, I want to make you sin." So God took their sin, their
iniquity, and laid it on Him. All the sins of those elect,
He laid it on Christ, and He became sin, the essence of sin. And God took Him to the cross
one day and poured out His wrath and His justice against sin.
You want to see what God thinks of sin? Look at the cross. You'll see that God made a bloody
piece of meat out of His Son. Men didn't do it. It pleased
the Lord to bruise Him, the Scripture says. God did it. Men did what
they determined to do, but they did what God determined before
to be done. God killed His own Son because He became sin for
His people. And He died. That corn of wheat
came down to this earth, disguised, came down to this earth and fell
into the ground. and died. He was buried. Christ died, and he was buried. He was buried. Why? Because if he didn't, God would
have to buy a loan, wouldn't he? Huh? God couldn't have any
men or any women with him. He wouldn't. Two can't walk together,
except they'd be great. Except they'd be—God says, I'm
holy, you're going to be holy. So Christ came, lived that that
death put away their sin fell into the ground and died. If
he didn't, he'd abide alone, and he doesn't need us. I'm not
here telling you or anybody that God needs us. He didn't have
to save anybody. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. He didn't have to save anybody.
If he had to do something, that means it's something he didn't
have, right? Huh? He doesn't need us. He didn't
need us. But out of mercy and grace and
love, we sure needed him. And he sent his son and he came
down and he fell in the ground and died. All right, look, verse
24. If it die. It brings forth much fruit, much
fruit, Henry. You don't know how much fruit
is going to come up when you plant that seed. Could be you
might more in that seed. Oh, that's all I've got. I hate
to bury it. The disciples hated the thought
of being done with their Lord. He said, I must. I've got to. If I don't, if I don't go to
that cross and die, you have no part in me. You have no life. You can't be with me where I
am. Unless I go prepare a place for you, you can't be with me
where I am. But it's my will. It's the Father's
will that you be with me where I am. So I've got to fall into
the ground and die. I don't want to stay there. Oh,
you can't keep me down. Because in him was life, right? That seed doesn't look like there's
much to it. It looks like it's dead, doesn't it? They saw Christ
hanging on that cross. He looked dead. They put him
in that tomb and rolled the stone over the door to his mother and
the women and the men. They all mourned over him, wept
over him. They thought he was dead, didn't
they? Oh, no. Life. In him was life. You just wait around. Just three
days, you wait around. We'll see him in full bloom.
He's going to come out in full bloom. And you know why he's
not going to be alone? He's going to bring many sons with him out
of the grave of sin, bringing forth much fruit. The fruit of
his life and the fruit of his death is the eternal salvation
of all of God's chosen people. And then in time, turn back to
Mark 4 now, in time, God Almighty sends his Holy Spirit And to all those people that
he's chosen, he sends the Holy Spirit through a man, through
his word, through God's word, through a man, to preach this
message of his Son. And through this message, he
calls them out. He gives birth to them, new births,
through the preaching of the gospel. We're born of, not of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Right? Faith cometh by hearing. Regeneration comes by hearing.
All right? That's the word. I just spent twenty-eight minutes
Preaching the word. So the word. I started to get
me a bucket full of corn this morning and throw it at you.
I wish I had, but I kept thinking of Vicki. I kept thinking I want her to
pick it all up. But as an illustration, I might
do it. Yes, as an illustration. I could take that corn this morning,
throw it at you, and some it'd hit and some it'd miss. What? I just did it. I just sold the
word. What'd it do to you? Huh? Everybody here was here. Everybody
here's got ears. Don't you? Some are a little
less functional than others. Aren't they, Charles? I said,
aren't they, Charles? I'm the same way, buddy. I'm
not making fun of you. But we all got ears, don't we? How many
heard what I just said? The Word. I preached the Word.
I preached the gospel, too. I can't make it any clearer.
You'll not hear that everywhere, either, what you just heard this
morning. If you didn't, everybody's here. Now, you're in the way. You're either in the way or you're
in the way. Or by the wayside. Christ said, many, many are walking
that broad road, well-traveled, well-trampled, stumpled, walked
road. Many are walking that broad road,
well-traveled road that leads to what? Destruction. But there are few, He said, walking
that narrow way. Christ said, I'm the way. which
lead it to lie. A lot of people walk in religion.
Everybody's religious! Everybody! It's uncool, unpopular not to
be religious. They think you're a pagan if
you're not religious. I'm here to tell you most paganism
is in religion today. But many are walking that broad
road, very few in Christ. Look at verse fourteen again,
it says, "...so are soeth the word." Verse four, look at that,
"...it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and
the fowls of the air came and devoured it up." Look at verse
fifteen, he explains, "...these are they," these by the wayside,
"...these are they where the word is sown, when they have
heard Satan cometh." That foul thing. Satan cometh and immediately
taketh away the word that was sown in their heart. Satan takes it away. He blinds,
as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, he blinds the minds. Stops the ear. And fowls. What are fowls? Birds. You know,
birds are fowls. They come down, plant the corn,
some of it. Here's a man, he plants, he goes
out and he throws the corn out there in the field, and some
of it falls over here on this hard, rocky ground here, or on
the sidewalk. Some of it falls on the sidewalk.
There's no earth at all on it. And the fowl, the birds of the
air, come down and pick it clean. It's all gone. Well, these are
thoughts. Some of you right now, as I'm
listening to you, bird fowls are stealing what I'm saying
to you. Fleeting thoughts are coming
into your mind, picking at what I'm saying this morning, preventing
you from hearing. Take it away. You heard it, but
you didn't hear a thing. You heard with the ears, but
not with the heart. It had no effect. That gospel that I preached
on you had no effect, nothing. Look at verses 5 and 6. Well,
I said, their son fell on stony ground. where it had not much
earth, had a little bit, but not much, and immediately it
sprang up, immediately, because it had no depth of earth. When
you plant seed, the first thing that grows is the root. It grows
down, and then the stalk grows up later. But this one didn't
have much earth, so the root sprung up, the stalk sprung straight
up. And when the sun was up, When
the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it
withered away. Look down at verse 16 and 17. He explained, These
are they, likewise, which are sown on stony ground, who, when
they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness. Stony
ground. What's stony ground? That's a
hard heart. The heart. It's stony. It's hard.
It's sinful. It's hardened by sin. It's hardened
to God. spiritually hardened. It's carnal
heart. It's unbroken. Hard heart is
an unbroken unbroken by the plow of God's Word, but it says some
of them receive it with gladness. Do you see that? Some stony ground
hearers receive with gladness, or some people hear the word
priest with interest. And if somebody came in here
this morning for the first time, they'd hear some things they'd
never heard before, and they'd say, oh, this is interesting.
This is different from mainstream religion. I don't see any robes,
I don't see any crosses, I don't see any choirs, I don't see any
They're not raising their hands. They're not doing this and that
and the other. No five-piece band. None of what's
going on. They'd think, well, this is different.
This is interesting. And that man's reading the Bible.
That's all he's done all morning, is read the Bible, read the Bible,
read the Bible. And he's preaching verse by verse, and he's preaching
not as the scribes do, in a monotone fashion, but he's preaching as
one with authority, as if he really believes it. But this
is interesting, and that's good. I like what he said there. Yeah,
I believe that. Yeah, I believe that. And because
of the logic of it and the newness of it, they spring up. At least from the Bible, it must
be so. But it says there's no root in
them, because there's no root in them. No depth of earth, he
said. No root in themselves. What is
a root? What is the root? Christ is that
root. No Christ in the heart. No depth
of feeling or of sin in the heart. The root of the matter, Job said
this in chapter 9, I believe, I didn't write it down. He said
the root of the matter is in the heart. Out of the heart are
the issues of life. The word of God must be written
on the heart, not on the head. It's got to go through the head,
yeah. You need to understand, right? You need to understand
something of what's being preached, not just believe it. You know
what I'm saying, because people just believe in any old thing.
You need to at least understand something of the truth, which
is Christ. But that truth's got to be assimilated,
got to be digested, doesn't it? It's got to go down and take
root before it brings any fruit. What if you ate? What if you
ate? This is what Paul means in Hebrews
6, by tasting the Word. What if you just took a bite
of an apple? Mmm, boy, it's good. Mmm, that's the best. Oh, that stale stamens. Jeanette
gave me a whole bag of stamen apples. What if I just... Boy,
those are good. Jeanette, I sure did enjoy those
apples. Sure did. I ate five of them.
You did? All in one sitting? Yeah. Spit
it all out. But I ate five. No, you didn't
eat it. It didn't go down there. It didn't
take root. Didn't do you any better good, did it? Huh? You
just tasted it. Well, out of the heart, you see,
God desires truth in the inward parts, David said. In the inward
parts. God must be worshipped in heart.
I don't care if your body's here this morning. I'll tell you what. It would be better if your body
weren't here this morning, if your heart's not. Why? I said it to begin with. This
Word is going to be a saver of death unto you. It's going to
add to our condemnation. You know, people are going to
answer for what they heard but didn't believe. They're going
to answer for what they heard or what they could have heard. God says the time is coming. When true worshippers are going
to worship God from the heart, not hands. God's not worshipped
with men's hands. We're not going through the motions
of religion here this morning. Why? God's not worshipped with
men's hands. God's not worshipped with all
these things. That's the reason the more you have on the outside,
the less you've got on the inside. Right? If Christ is in your heart,
you don't need a five-piece choir. You'll be a one-man band. Right? You don't need all these trappings
of religion if Christ is in your heart. You can praise him. The old song says that, oh, four
thousand tongues to sing. Just, we've got one. Use that
one. That's all you need. He's the
one we have. God's worshipped in the heart,
not with a show of the flesh, not with head knowledge. The
word of God must take root in the heart. The word of God must
take root in the heart with a real abiding need and affection. Do you need the gospel I preached
to you a while ago, huh? Or was it just a good sermon?
Hey, he said some good things. He's a good preacher. He sings
a good song. That's what they said about Ezekiel,
wasn't it, John? I'll come to you, God said to Ezekiel, and
you'll be as one and have a good voice. and sing a good song.
Some people are going to go out of here remembering that song
and not remembering a word of the Word of God I've read or
preached. Oh, that's a good song. That's
the reason, John, I don't much like to sing anymore. Because
this is the business at hand. God's never saved a soul by a
print singing of a song. You don't find that in the Bible
anywhere. I'm not denying it. I love it. I enjoy it. I ask
you to sing it. But nowhere will you find where it says God, by
the foolishness of singing, saves them that believe. Preaching
the Word. I'm sowing the Word. The Word of God. And it's got
to take root down in the heart with a real sincere need and
affection. It's not just, I believe that.
It's, I believe that. And I need that. Yeah, that's
me. I'm a sinner. And yeah, I need
that Christ! I need that God! Yeah! Tell it
again! No root. Look at verse 17 again. It says, "...they have no root
in themselves, so endure but for a time." No root. They endure for a time. They
endure gospel for a time. Some people just endure preaching.
Some people are enduring what I'm doing right now, just enduring
it. And it's sad. And I'm trying
to pour my heart out here. And this is not my, this is the
Word of God. This is the Word of God. This comes from God's
heart. This is not my little two-bit sermon, Joe Parks. This
is the Word of God. So all I'm doing is telling you,
this is what God said for Lord Harkin. God said this. Got ears? God made them. Then listen up. Here's what God
says. Some just endure it, though.
We'll be glad when this is over. Where are we going to eat, honey? It says, when affliction arises,
when affliction arises, trials, some people, they just spring
up. That sounds good. Yeah, I like that. That's good.
And affliction arises, so trials, troubles, problems, the road
gets rough, you know. They start doubting God. They
start disbelieving the gospel, start making excuses for not
coming and so forth. And then persecution arises for
the word's sake. Persecution arises for the word's
sake. Some people, they hear the gospel
the first time, they say, I believe that. Yeah, I believe that. And
then the world starts saying, you believe that? You don't believe
that election, do you? Now, come on. Well, yeah, I just
felt like, I read it from Ephesians Chapter 1 and Romans 9, he read
it there from the Word. You don't believe that. That's
not what the Bible, you don't believe that. Nobody believes
that. How could you believe that? Nobody believes that. No, nobody
believes that. Persecution for the truth's sake. Nobody believes that. Don't go
down there. Go anywhere but there. And they
begin to question what you're hearing and believing and persecute
you for it, and you say, well, yeah, that's the impression I
get, that they think they're right and everybody else is wrong.
I even heard the preacher say, if anybody preaches any other
gospel than what he's preaching, let them go to hell. I heard
him say that. More powerful preachers
than this, Paul said that. The Apostle Paul is one that
said that. And they become offended. Ashamed. No, I don't believe that. No,
you don't believe that. No, I don't believe that. You know, it says for a time.
Did you see that? Oh, this makes me want to weep. Christ said for a time. They
received the word for a time. It doesn't say how long. I've known, I've seen many who
have sat under the gospel longer than anybody in this room. Believe it. There's nobody in this room,
am I telling the truth? I've seen men and women who were
more solid and seemingly faithful And you could have as much or
more confidence in them than any man or woman that's in this
congregation now. I've seen them sit under it for
30 or 40 years and live it. I mean drop it and not even go
anywhere. It doesn't say for how long.
Our Lord does not say. It says for a time they receive
it. And this is what scares me. I am seeing in some here the very seeds of that. I'm seeing
the very things begin to take place in some here who at first
received the gospel with such enthusiasm, such joy, such rejoicing,
it seemed like, sprung up for a while, couldn't get enough
of it. And I've seen their interest
start to wane. Y'all tell me, is my message
changed? Is this gospel, am I preaching something different? That scares me. Well, it says,
some fell among thorns. Verses eighteen and nineteen
said, These are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear
the word and the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches,
and lust of other things. Enter in, choke the word, and
it becomes fruitful. Thorns, that's other interests,
you know. I've seen this a hundred times. I've got a new job. I talk to somebody at the conference
in Lexington. They're moving to Dallas, Texas. They're moving
away from where a brother is preaching, I better not say.
A brother is one of the most solid preachers of the gospel
anywhere around now. They're leaving that, kind of
moving to Dallas, Texas. I don't know of a gospel church
in Dallas, Texas. I never heard tell of one. They
say, well, we're looking around. Yeah, I hear you. You ought to
have gone down there first. And first, before you decide
to move, you find out if there's a gospel church there. And if
there ain't one there, don't go. Right? A job comes along,
a new home, a new family, deceitfulness of riches. Why does he call it
deceitfulness of riches? Because it appears to be hopeful. Greener grass. Grass ain't no
greener. Better opportunity. Promotion,
you know, until the word is altogether forgotten. Cares and other interests,
job, home and family. I've seen people have children.
You know and then and that that the fiction of their children
people who went without him for one of the children grow up and
in their affection for those children take them away from
the gospel in many things. I know one young man who was
here one time one time in this very congregation who got a new
job and a new home in the same week and he's not here anymore. It was uncanny to me that that
happened. He got a new home and a new job
at the same time, and he was gone very, very short. That's
what he said about the lust of other things entering in, choking
out. They forget the gospel. Verse 20, But these are they,
now those that fell on good ground, are they that are sown on good
ground, such as hear the word. Good ground? Good dirt? Now, wait a minute. Is there anything good about
dirt? Huh? And what is dirt? Isn't it decayed matter? Isn't
it filthy, vile, wretched, decayed, dying flesh and bones and this
and that? Isn't that what dirt is? Scripture
says there's none good. No, not one. But as some people
say, well, I'm good and I heard it and And others didn't, and
I did something with it. I bled on Jesus. I said, see,
I'm good ground here. Oh, no. You're the vilest of
the vile. Self-righteous ground. Stinking
ground. Fertilizer of your works. Soybeans. You're full of soybeans. Ever smelled rotting soybeans?
Good ground, though, is ground that the Lord makes good. And what is good ground? It's
broken ground. Isn't it? Broken up ground. Fallow ground. Ground that's
been, you know, same sower, same husbandman's the one who comes
up and breaks the ground and prepare it for the receiving
of the seed. He breaks it up and God the Holy Spirit, through
the same word, it's all one and the same. He breaks the heart,
he convicts of sin, he makes somebody poor. You know it's
blessed to be poor. That's not what he's talking
about. Poor in spirit. It's blessed. A person's blessed
who says, oh, I'm a nothing, I'm a nobody from nowhere, I
don't know anything, can't do anything. Blessed are you, you
poor in spirit. Yours is a, you'll inherit the
kingdom of God. You know, it's blessed to mourn,
mourn over your sin. The religious world out there
says that, that's unbelief to all the time be you know, not
be worried about your sin. No, it's blessed. Blessed are
you that mourn over your sin. You feel your sinfulness? What
a blessed person you are. God says you'll be filled. You'll
be comforted. You'll be comforted. If you mourn
your sin, when the gospel comes to you, it'll comfort you, won't
it? If you don't mourn your sin, the gospel comes, so what? Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst, they'll be filled. Be filled. Freshly plowed land,
you know this about, and I'll quit, freshly plowed ground just soaks everything up. You
ever notice that? Freshly plowed ground. I have
a garden, and I'll plow it up and go out there and sow the
seed, and I'll put the seed, and I've sown scattered seed
like like he's talking about here, and I'll throw it out all
over the ground, and you know, I have to look real hard to find
it. Right after I've thrown it, where'd
it go? It went down, boy. It went down,
and it just went down and just started taking root almost immediately.
That's what the Word of God, a hungry, thirsty sinner after
coming in here, feeling his sin, her sin, her guilt, her need
of Christ, when they hear that gospel, they take it down in
their heart and say, I like that! Give me some more! Give me some
more! And other people say, get it
over with! And he said, give me some more!
He's been plowed up, say, and the rain comes. the Spirit of
God and blesses that word and just soaks it up, just soaks
it, soaks it. Plows the ground, good ground.
He has a real heartfelt need for Christ. And I like this,
did you read what he said there? It says, Some bringeth forth,
it all brings forth fruit. I like that. It all brings forth
fruit. But look at this, for your comfort.
Verse 20, he said, Some, he said, These that are sown on good ground,
such as hear the word And you'll not hear it unless God wills
for you to hear it. The Holy Spirit applies it. But
they receive it and bring forth fruit. They all, I give unto
them eternal life and they'll never perish. They all bring
forth fruit to the glory of God, every one of them, that hear
and believe this gospel according to the will of God, some 30,
some 60, some 100. He said, Preacher, I don't have
much faith. Yeah, I want a hundred. Thirty
is good enough. Oh, you want a hundred, seek
ye the best gifts. Seek more, but that little faith
will save you just as much as great faith. Isn't that comforting? Some thirty, some sixty. Well, we should have your faith.
It's not my faith. It's not your faith. It's his
faith. It's the object. It's not the
amount. It's the object. One grain of
corn can produce a lot of ears as well as a whole handful, can't
it? Sure it can. A sower went forth to sow. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Okay, stand with me.